Unit 4 Class Blog

For those who may wonder what this is about, I'll include the assignment:

Begin practice 1: Loving Kindness. Listen to tracks #1 and #2 on the Dacher CD. Practice the Loving Kindness exercise this week. In your journal (blog), record your reaction to the exercise.

Answer each of the following in your blog:1. Describe your experience. (Did you find it beneficial? Difficult?) Why or Why not? Would you recommend this to others? Why or Why not?

2. What is the concept of “Mental Workout"? What does the research indicate are the proven benefits of a Mental Work Out? How can you implement mental workouts to foster your psychological health?

The loving-kindness exercise involves quieting oneself, then sending loving-energy to someone (I may suggest I do this 'with hugs'), after which - you absorb it also for yourself. The next phase was accepting the pain of someone around you and allowing it to dissolve into the same sense of well-being.

Problem is, how do I narrow this down to a few individuals?

I do this frequently without conscious direction. If any of you felt 'smacked by a bolt of nice' - I can't take credit for it, I don't create the energy, just pass it on? But I smack a lot! :)

In my world, I've been through similar experiences with tapes and books that addressed health issues by "what are you carrying inside?" One of decades past (or yesterday, depending on one's view of time being stable) was a 45-minute meditation that included portions of seeing 'challengers' (I don't like the word enemy) tied to oneself - then forgiving and releasing by 'cutting the ties'. One of the things this created was an awareness of unfinished business you hadn't cleaned out yet.

Bringing the energy inside can be a more difficult task, as can simply finding your focus. If the phone's ringing, the paycheck late, the dogs barking, back aching, and assignments due... What focus? The advice of the ages has been to establish a routine time and place, but this itself is not stable; I think the goal of routine is to trigger an almost automatic response "time to relax".

My days depend so much on themselves - if I need to drive surveys, if I'm on a bigger project, if it's raining, if the granddaughter is home (starts summer vacation tomorrow - stay tuned!), if I brought home 11 bags of cement and need to create storage before it rains (Friday), if I'm trying to mow the grass before it rains (Saturday). I do break regularly, just it may be any time between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. or midnight on a long day?

I fixed my room for this - it isn't finished and looks a bit like a nightmare, but -- the construction Styrofoam (technically for heat loss prevention) 3 - 4 inches thick is an excellent sound-blocker. The curtains aren't properly up (finish walls first), but they're exceptionally light-blocking. Any time of the day, I can 'go down and shut down' - this includes easing off the muscles and aches and quieting my head. Amazing what controlling this environment can do for a person!

These are the times I focus intentionally on a person if I feel the need to or issues with someone or 'what's poking at me'. Occasionally I get all kinds of wisdom rolling through, but I don't get up and capture it in text to save - would be a good time to have a tape cassette handy. And I don't feel "it's me talking."

One recent time... not sure I mentioned back in April that I was stopped by the Deerwood police, said I was going "41 through their intersection" (Deerwood has a population of about 500) - sigh. While I waited for him to approach, with son Dennis with, I surrendered to the moment and sent the officer a beam of kind thought. I'd been triple-timing on census cases, checking on my young friend (found out later he took his life the week before), and fetching Dennis home.

Par for the course, my proof of insurance wasn't in the glove box; everything from 2005 was, but not the current one -sigh. Strangely enough... he gave me a ticket w/court appearance on the insurance which would be canceled if my company faxed current status to the courthouse and let me go on my way. (! - The amazing part is he's known for slapping 'to the full limit of the law' on everybody! He could have impounded my vehicle, gave me a speeding ticket, and played hardball...)

There are several possible reasons. One, my bolt of nice struck home. Two, he was ending his shift and wanted to get home (then why stop me?). Three, he looked at my car, with the cracked windshield and rust, and thought if it were impounded, no one would pick it up - and it wouldn't have much value at auction. :)

Of course there is the fourth option, I out-talked him in babble and he didn't want to deal with a half-wit.

On the other hand, a bolt of nice couldn't hurt, and it might have altered my state which elicited the response that led to a more positive outcome.

I did make sure my insurance company did their end with the county, because I'd hate like just-roll-me-through-the-nettles-and-hang-me-in-a-mosquito-swamp gall of being stopped another day and finding out there's a warrant out for my arrest - hardened criminal that I am! (One friend reported they'd tortured her with rap on the radio when a forgotten speeding ticket of 11 years prior caused her car to be impounded. We see where this may not improve the situation, and I'd crack like a DDT-egg within minutes.)

Shucks, the nettles and skitters aren't nuthin' compared to that!

Back to class to wrap this up for now - the greater awareness is the Universe gave me a heads-up on the insurance card being missing in the only way I would have noticed, and it all worked out.

PS - Part 2 will have to wait, this is getting long and it's pushing towards midnight. To finish off the questions on Part 1, if someone was receptive to this meditation, I'd recommend it. If I felt they might mesh better with other options I have available, I'd share that - if they wanted. The message of loving-kindness is always worthy, whatever form it comes in?

Just the Normal Unusual Fare (nonclass post)

Last-last Thursday eve, I was feeling a little weighted by "too much work" - the necessary list of things I need to get done. I realized what I was missing was a bit of play combined with it. No worries, the Universe took care of that on Friday.

Friday started with the usual wake-up nudge (the call of the coffee pot) and my services were needed to print granddaughter's school project - due that day, of course, no idea where she gets it from. They took off in their usual running-late mode - Val said she's learned to stop at the office for a tardy slip on her way to class, because otherwise she's sent back down from the fourth floor classroom to get one, and it's just more efficient doing it her way. They were also in a panicky state about a very fat guinea pig and possible labor complications (gads, my daughter had talked of vet c-section even!).

I had offered to drop off a pink chair no longer in service here for a free-cycler by 9:00, so I was heading out, too. Friend Pete stopped to drop off some spare rough-cut trim strips, and I checked Ms. Piggy before leaving - she had three newbies in with her. My daughter hadn't made it to work yet, but I called the front desk and when she got there, they announced the News by intercom.

So - we had piggies and I had the pink chair, and the free-cycle exchange was at a nearby gas station. I was early, and thought I'd get a Sobe. But when I went to pull out my debit card, it wasn't where it belonged. Quick mental gymnastics, realized I may have left it the day before at my usual stop; I also realized it had about $3 on it, so financially it wasn't going to get anyone too far. No Sobe, because all I had otherwise was a check from Sera to cover gas & cement bags.

So - I went to the bank and cashed the check for $20. I stopped at the other station, put in $10 in gas and sure enough, Roger had set aside my debit card - at which point, it was missing again. It'd slipped down behind their long counter. Roger needed time to work on this dilemma, so I went to Menards to get three bags of cement.

Except Menards had a pallet of broken bags for $10. Which was exactly what I had. So I had to talk the manager into dropping the price so the tax would be included, which he kindly did - since my debit card was still stuck behind the counter at the gas station. We got the bags loaded in my little Supercar (Acura Integra 1990) and then I retrieved my debit card. Roger said it'd been quite a challenge working it out, something about poles and duct tape and flashlights.

I ended up with 4 bags of cement, five bags of blasting sand (one black), a bag of white play sand and several bags of pebble-gravel instead of three bags of cement. The white sand went into the lizard's cage and the cement was used this week for rhubarb stepping stones - practical and creative.

The next day I picked up an exterior door to replace one here, had a frame with it (! thought it'd make my life easier). But when I went to move the Cadillac (1990, 107,000 miles, clean body, has been sitting...) so I could unload the door more conveniently...

The brake line went 'pop!' and my driveway took over, rolling the car over a chain-link pet fence, some logs, and stopping on a small tree. So much for a clean body on this car. Luckily, I wasn't on the highway at 60 mph, luckily the dogs weren't outside, luckily there wasn't anyone around to get hurt.

My "10-day from purchase" grace period on insurance was running out that weekend, so I had made sure it was covered Friday, and my intent was to take it to my mechanic for a check-up after the weekend traffic went home. My son came over and helped get it off the fence and I went back to hanging a door before doing two assignment due by 11 p.m.

The door had to be cut down to fit, but that's another story. Suffice it to say I winged the assignments out with moments to spare.